Luke Conlan’s 90th minute strike earned the Clarets a 2-1 victory at Turf Moor with the Lancashire side progressing to the last 16 of the Barclays U21 Premier League Cup.
Craig Lynch had given the young Black Cats a first-half lead before Luke Gallagher’s fine strike levelled the tie on the hour.
Kevin Ball: “I think overall in the game Burnley deserved to win; they played with more enthusiasm and more thought than what we did.
“It was the first time [this season] I could honestly say I thought we played too slowly and, though we had players playing out of position and I understand that, it was really disappointing.
“Our football wasn’t that creative; it was sedentary if I’m honest and if you play like that you can’t expect to win games.
“It was an off night for us because if you look at our season overall we encourage them to play, move the ball quickly and move it with endeavour which is something we’ve done 99% of the time.
“The ridiculous thing about the game was that we went 1-0 up through a great finish from Craig Lynch but we could have been ahead prior to that as well.
“When it went to 1-1 we still had four or five opportunities where we could have won the game ourselves - but we didn’t take them - and I said to Robbie [Stockdale] we’re going to get bit on the backside here.
“Burnley put in a good shift and I thought they played some good football as well – I just felt we didn’t really have that edge tonight.”
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
Saturday November 30
15:00 Aston Villa v Sunderland
15:00 Cardiff City v Arsenal
15:00 Everton v Stoke City
15:00 Norwich City v Crystal Palace
15:00 West Ham United v Fulham
17:30 Newcastle United v West Brom
Sunday December 1
12:00 Tottenham v Man Utd
14:05 Hull City v Liverpool
16:10 Chelsea v Southampton
16:10 Manchester City v Swansea City
Tuesday December 3
20:00 Crystal Palace v West Ham United
Wednesday December 4
19:45 Arsenal v Hull City
19:45 Liverpool v Norwich City
19:45 Man Utd v Everton
19:45 Southampton v Aston Villa
19:45 Stoke City v Cardiff City
19:45 Sunderland v Chelsea
19:45 Swansea City v Newcastle United
20:00 Fulham v Tottenham
20:00 West Brom v Manchester City
Sunderland Fixtures
Saturday November 30
15:00 Premier League Aston Villa v Sunderland
Wednesday December 4
19:45 Premier League Sunderland v Chelsea
Saturday December 7
17:30 Premier League Sunderland v Tottenham
Saturday December 14
15:00 Premier League West Ham United v Sunderland
Tuesday December 17
19:45 League Cup - Qtr Sunderland v Chelsea
Saturday December 21
15:00 Premier League Sunderland v Norwich City
Thursday December 26
15:00 Premier League Everton v Sunderland
Saturday December 28
17:30 Premier League Cardiff City v Sunderland